South Africa in Australia 2008-09

[Bees]

Thoughts?

 

[Lillian Thomson]

Thoughts?

Only that it's over 4 months away.

 

[Napier16]

Thoughts?

That umpires will play a role in deciding which way it goes...unless the referral system is used for it, in which case it will be interesting to see who wins.

 

[Redbacks]

Key battles for Australia

can brett lee continue to toruble G.Smith
and Stuart Clark deal with Kallis and Prince

 

[Richard]

Should be a cracker - but so should have the series' of 2001/02 and 2005/06 been.

And they weren't.

 

[itduzz]

Should be a cracker - but so should have the series' of 2001/02 and 2005/06 been.

And they weren't.

no warne/mcgrath this time....

 

[Richard]

Yeah... uproarious.

If you look carefully those two had far less impact in 2005/06 than other players - Stuart Clark, Brett Lee even, and of course the dreaded Matthew Hayden. Really hope SA can get the better of him on this occasion, be a good postscript.

McGrath generally didn't tend to have all that much impact in Tests against South Africa, in fact.

 

[grapedo]

I think ul find that the teams and series of 2001 and 2006 weren't as good as the one south africa has now. Steyn bowls the perfect length to bamboozle ponting. ANd Ntini can get the left handers. Clarke can't handle pace and bounce along with symonds so Morkel will get them and that's about all you need to worry about my prediction is south africa 2-0. Thats on condition they will bat well but Australai's attack is no longer good Mitchel Johnson is going to get carted and won't play after this summer. He bowls to short and Smith will enjoy hitting him to the fences all summer. Clark will have terrific battlesd with Amla I think but that will subdue him alot and thus Prince De villiers And Boucher will be able to make runs off his bowling due to tiredness and I think Neil Mckenzie has the perfect game to form partnerships. Lee has lost alot of pace he can barely reach 15o these days which the proteas will also like. And Beau Casson is no different to paul harris who they paly in the netsa all the time I think they have all bases covered.

Should be a cracker - but so should have the series' of 2001/02 and 2005/06 been.

And they weren't.

 

[howardj]

Will be a belter.

Again, like Ashes 2005, SA need to subdue Hayden and Ponting if they're to win.

 

[anoop4real]

Only that it's over 4 months away.

 

[Richard]

I think ul find that the teams and series of 2001 and 2006 weren't as good as the one south africa has now.

That isn't true at all. SA's teams of 2001/02 and 2005/06 were both potentially pretty damn good. Not that this one isn't as well, but good teams have failed to produce for SA against Australia the last 3 times they've met. And it was even more true in 1996/97/98 than either of the above.

 

[grapedo]

That isn't true at all. SA's teams of 2001/02 and 2005/06 were both potentially pretty damn good. Not that this one isn't as well, but good teams have failed to produce for SA against Australia the last 3 times they've met. And it was even more true in 1996/97/98 than either of the above.

Mate in 2005 kallis was injury plagued smith was out of form de villiers was still growing prince whad nothing. And kemp was in the test line up. And they're bowling attack was worse and in 2001 thay had know one they didn't make the super 8 of the world cup with a similar line up . You prob dont even know their team.

 

[Furball]

I think ul find that the teams and series of 2001 and 2006 weren't as good as the one south africa has now. Steyn bowls the perfect length to bamboozle ponting. ANd Ntini can get the left handers. Clarke can't handle pace and bounce along with symonds so Morkel will get them and that's about all you need to worry about my prediction is south africa 2-0. Thats on condition they will bat well but Australai's attack is no longer good Mitchel Johnson is going to get carted and won't play after this summer. He bowls to short and Smith will enjoy hitting him to the fences all summer. Clark will have terrific battlesd with Amla I think but that will subdue him alot and thus Prince De villiers And Boucher will be able to make runs off his bowling due to tiredness and I think Neil Mckenzie has the perfect game to form partnerships. Lee has lost alot of pace he can barely reach 15o these days which the proteas will also like. And Beau Casson is no different to paul harris who they paly in the netsa all the time I think they have all bases covered.

A truely dreadful post.

 

[Precambrian]

Hmm.. the best thing about SA is that they have a settled captain than last time. Smith is now 5 years into the job. 27 yrs old, and matured.

Secondly, their batting dependence on Kallis has reduced to some extent.

Which brings me into the third point, ie. re-emergence of Neil McKenzie , (reliable opening partner to Smith), Abe's coming-of-age in India, and Amla's ironing out deficiencies in his technique.

Bowling is a bit inexperienced however at the same time an advantage as Aussies don't have much working knowledge of tacking Steyn, Morkel etc. And these two have proved they can become the next Donald-Pollock combo. And Ntini is always there to fall back for guidance and experience.

Weak link - Paul Harris. He will be looked forward to by Australian batsmen as the scoring option much like Boje was. Smith should use Harris judiciously, and should not hesitate to go even "alarmingly" defensive, just to put make batsmen take the extra effort against the pacemen.

Key will be : Tackle Clarke, Attack Lee, and match is safe. Get the top order. And the match is in the bag. But as they say, the cat needs to be belled first.

 

[Richard]

Mate in 2005 kallis was injury plagued smith was out of form de villiers was still growing prince whad nothing. And kemp was in the test line up. And they're bowling attack was worse and in 2001 thay had know one they didn't make the super 8 of the world cup with a similar line up . You prob dont even know their team.

Err, I know pretty much every South African line-up of the last 10 years. The team of 2001/02 had Kirsten, Gibbs, Kallis, McKenzie, Boucher, Klusener and Pollock, quality players all. They also thought they might have Donald, though sadly they were mistaken (he did play, but he wasn't the real Allan Donald any more). That they didn't make the Super Six (not Eight) of WC2003 was a) totally irrelevant as that's a ODI competition and the Australia Test series was, astonishingly enough, a Test series and b) not due to the inadequecies of that team.

As for 2005/06, Smith was less out of form than merely not playing terribly well at that time. The way he repeatedly played at wide deliveries, something he virtually never did in 2003, and something he's still doing far more than I'd like to see right now, caused him near enough all his problems. Kallis suffered with an injury in a whole 1 Test (and though he played 2 good innings', he was wrongly criticised for not upping the pace despite being pretty well incapable of doing so thanks to his lack of fitness) and simply did not bat as well as one might hope he would. ABdeV was a decent player, so was Prince, neither of them performed - it happens. Kemp played a whole 1 Test.

Now, there is Smith (who as I say has still not completely convinced me the way I'd like him to have), McKenzie (who has still to convince as an opener, pretty well all his big runs coming on stupidly flat wickets), Amla (who has still to convince full-stop), Kallis (who's just had a poor series where his long-standing failure to sight very full balls has been exposed, a weakness you can bet your life the Australians will look to repeat exploiting and which I hope he'll make an effort to address), Prince (a good player but who might have put all his eggs in a basket for now) and de Villiers (an opener batting at six). That could be strong, but it could be weak as well.

And the bowling-attack remains very much to convince. The fact that the bowler with the skill to do best, Nel, remains the worst performing, says it all.

 

[Richard]

Steyn, Morkel have proved they can become the next Donald-Pollock combo.

No. They've done nothing of the sort. There is not a prayer in hell of either Steyn or Morkel being as good as Donald or Pollock. It simply is not going to happen. They do not have sufficient basic skills.

 

[sanga1337]

No. They've done nothing of the sort. There is not a prayer in hell of either Steyn or Morkel being as good as Donald or Pollock. It simply is not going to happen. They do not have sufficient basic skills.

Like?

 

[Richard]

Like the height (in Steyn's case), accuracy (in both's) and ability to swing the ball (in Morkel's).

Pollock's accuracy was about as good as anyone in history, while Donald's was mostly pretty good during his international days, though like most people he had his off-days. Donald was a phenomenally skilled bowler of swing, seam and just about anything else you could wish a bowler to bowl, which neither Steyn nor Morkel are yet. Donald and Pollock were both also taller than Steyn.

To date, both Steyn and Morkel are one-trick ponies. Steyn is almost totally reliant on the fast outswinger (much as this is an enormously potent weapon when he gets it right) and to date hasn't demonstrated an ability to do anything much without a new ball. He is also someone who is almost always going to go for runs due to his lack of height, and isn't the most accurate bowler you'll see either. Morkel meanwhile is almost completely reliant on bouncy, seaming decks. If he doesn't get this he offers nothing. He too can be prone to wild inaccuracy.

It truly astounds me that anyone would think they're likely to be as good as one of the best pairs of seam-bowlers in history.

 

[Precambrian]

No. They've done nothing of the sort. There is not a prayer in hell of either Steyn or Morkel being as good as Donald or Pollock. It simply is not going to happen. They do not have sufficient basic skills.

Dale Steyn 25 test matches. 143 wickets @ 22.51. Richard dear, you ought to read your posts again! (Excluding Bangladesh - 23 matches, 130 wickets @ 23.73) Enough to get him into any current World XI, I'd guess! And he's just 24 or 25...

As for Morne, he's just started his career, and by what i've seen of him so far (in India), he looks a dependable, all-day bolwing partner for the expresso Steyn. I think that was what initially Polly-Donald combo was about. I am not saying they're already world beaters. Going by what I've seen, I think this duo is the most exciting of young fast bowlers to come up in a while, add to that Ishant Sharma, and Tim Southee. These 4 will be the stars in another 3 or 4 years.

No sarcasm, but coming this from a person who says Vaughan is a better opening batsman than Virender Sehwag, just because he ahs a silken cover drive, I can understand.

 

[Swervy]

And the bowling-attack remains very much to convince. The fact that the bowler with the skill to do best, Nel, remains the worst performing, says it all.

Your loving of Nel baffles me